TFRStaff 5:09 am on 2017-05-16
Tags: restoration ( 19 ), transformation ( 5 ), VOTD ( 508 )

‘I am the one!’ John 9.9 VOTD

“Some people said, ‘This is the man!’ while others said, ‘No, but he looks like him.’ The man himself kept insisting, ‘I am the one!'”

John 9.9

Jesus healed a blind man and upset the abnormal human state of affairs.

When Christ restores us to God, how does that disturb people?

#VOTD #restoration #transformation

Karen 11:09 am on 2017-05-16

People are used to seeing us in a certain way. We may be good, bad, or indifferent, but the way they see us is part of their comfort zone. When we change after Christ restores us to God, we sometimes suddenly become strangers to those closest to us.
Family and close friends are disturbed the most. They think something is wrong with us; we’re having a breakdown (in reality God is putting our world back together), or that we’ve been influenced by the wrong people. If we try to share with them, they sometimes think we are judging them, or they condescendingly smile and say they are glad we are happy. Whatever the reaction, there is usually a disconnect.
When I was restored to God, it was a bit of a crisis for me. I was this senior citizen who should have been all settled in my affairs, but I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, and it turned my world upside down.
Most people who knew me liked me the way I was, and the last thing they expected was a major change in my spirituality and religion (last thing I expected, too). It puzzled them and they were awkward around me.
The Catholic side of my family were quiet but obviously disturbed that I had left the faith and might be lost. The other side of my family, for the most part, already assumed I was lost, and because of the church I chose maybe still question my actions and beliefs. Fortunately, they have all been pretty kind about it.
When I started living for Jesus, there were things that changed. My twin great-nieces (age 17), with whom I spend several hours a day, had thought of me as the “fun” aunt. They didn’t like the changes they saw. I wasn’t as much fun. I haven’t watched TV since last August; only been to movies once, and my music has changed. Some habits changed. Some of my friends changed, and suddenly I was going to church two or three times a week. I became a different person.
After I was baptized, my nieces were actually mad at me because they thought I had changed too much. But as time went by they saw the changes were good, and That I didn’t abandon them. They started going to church with me, and loved it. They were eventually restored themselves, and now both are very active in church activities and personal evangelism to their friends. They love Jesus and want to serve him because they, too, encountered the real Jesus and became new people.
God is good, and even though things may seem upside down, it isn’t the Christian’s world that is disturbed. Our world is restored to the way it should be. It’s the world of those who haven’t truly met Jesus that is disturbed. It’s with those people we should continue to share the way to reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ.
(Sorry this is so long; I can’t help it when I talk about Jesus) 🙂
- J. Randal Matheny 4:43 am on 2017-05-17
  
  I’ve seen this happen in people’s lives. When God sets things right in our lives, it upsets other people’s apple carts.
  
  Wasn’t too long for me. Every word interesting. You told the story well.

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‘I am the one!’ John 9.9 VOTD

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